RADIO BROADCAST #294 11–16–14

Fanatic! Thank you for reading these brief notes. Tonight we have a very special show for you.

In our first hour, we rock a cool mix and then in hour number two, we listen to tracks from artists on the excellent Utech label out of Wisconsin.

One of my favorite Wire songs isn’t on any of their first three albums. It is on a single they made after they parted ways with EMI and went to Rough Trade.

I think I may have mentioned this before but I have been listening a lot to Wire’s very cool and interesting album Document & Eyewitness. I first heard it in 1986 although it came out in 1981. It is a Wire album that a lot of Wire fans don’t mention but it is worth checking out. I think in order to enjoy it to its fullest potential, one should do some reading up on it. Really cool story. The album was recently re-issued on CD and LP by the band. I have not heard the LP version yet but got the CD and it’s much better sounding than the original issue and there’s more tracks on it and great liner notes as well. Anyway, Our first track tonight is not from the live album but it is a version of Wire considerably more raw than their previous studio efforts. I wish they had made one more studio album around the time they recorded Document.

I hope you dig our first hour. I think many of the wonderful artists we feature are some of the “usual suspects” and hopefully keeps you glued to your listening device.

I Wanted To Let You Know The Good News Dept.: I got the Empire Expensive Sound LP remaster/reissues a few days ago. It is a run of 1000. 500 in black vinyl at 200 gram or red at 150 gram. I rocked the 200g and it’s happening. Drastic Plastic did a great job. Like some of you, I have listened to this album many times and it sounds excellent. The best part of this reissue is that it is now easy and cheap to get a great sounding copy of this awesome record. If you want to check it out, the website info is below.

Good News Dept. Part Two Dept.: Yes, I used the word “Dept.” twice. I think it’s funny. Over the last few years, we have gotten a lot of requests for a reprint of Fanatic! Vol. 3. We only made 1000 of them and they went fast. So, we made a limited run of them and they are presently on the truck and making their way to our merch place. I got one today and looked it over. It’s good to go. So, if you ever wanted to check this book out and never had the chance, now you will. We will post / tweet when we actually have them in the place and ready to ship immediately. It’s a way-too-long 532 pages!

So, like I said, we have this great second hour, dedicated to the excellent and very brave Utech Records.

Keith Utech and I have been conspiring together to make this great. This hour started as an idea, I think it was Keith’s. He and I were exchanging emails and he made me aware that the ten year anniversary of the label was coming up. Somewhere in the exchange, the idea for a solid hour of Utech releases came up. I asked Keith to put it together. What you will hear tonight is all hand-picked and edited by Keith himself. I had to do a lot of research to get all the names of the players right because hardly any of these people are familiar to me. This is one of my favorite parts about the label. I learn a lot when I listen. I like the records on a lot of levels but one of the most appealing aspects of the Utech label is how little I know about these artists and how much I enjoy checking them out.

Here’s the website address for Utech: http://www.utechrecords.com/.

This show went through several revisions to get it to where it sits now—poised, ready to leap into your ears. Until next week, we thank you.